School of Public Health Changes Name
The schools new name recognizes its large undergraduate student population.
The school, founded in 1980 as part of a then-new College of Health and Human Services, has had an undergraduate component since the mid-90s.
School director Hala Madanat, who initiated the request for the new name, said the previous designation caused occasional confusion and posed marketing problems. “It’s a hard major for undergraduate students to find,” Madanat said. The new name should help undergraduates “to feel part of what we do.”
It’s a sizeable population. The school had nearly 500 undergraduates enrolled in fall 2017 and granted 129 bachelor’s degrees in 2016-17.
“We have amazing undergraduate students,” Madanat said, “and it’s good to be able to highlight them.”
It’s perfect timing, too, Madanat noted, as San Diego will host the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting and Expo in November.
Steven Hooker, who begins as dean of the College of Health and Human Services on June 29, said he supports the change. The new name is “more broad and inclusive,” Hooker said, and places the School of Public Health “on an equal footing with other schools of public health … in California and across the country.”
